UKC

South East Wales Jam Cracks

New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
 myrddinmuse 07 Feb 2018

It's not an area known for cracks, jamming, or particularly spectacular climbing, but there is a decent amount of it around. I want to train for a summer trip to vedauwoo but it's harder to persuade people to go to the Peak than to the 30min drive to the Yat.

I was just wondering if there are any people with knowledge of any cracks that are worth doing between the  Wye Valley, Sandstone Quarries, and the Gower? Offwidth, hands, fists, fingers, I'm not picky. Grades VS-E4 maybe?

The only ones that really come to mind for me are Organ Grinder (always laybacked anyway) at Shorn Cliff, and Bodger Bob at Wynd Cliff? There must be some... Even in this limestone hellscape of ours

 james.slater 07 Feb 2018
In reply to myrddinmuse:

At the Yat:

Red Rose Speedway (HVS 5a)  Whitt (VS 4c) (Top Pitch)  Kipper Crack (VS 4c)  Big Bad C (VS 4c)  Offspring (VS 4c) all come to mind, albeit in the lower grades. Trouble is in the Wye Valley a lot of the cracks can be climbed using other 'non-crack' features so dont necessarily make you good at climbing cracks!

Post edited at 13:31
 Angrypenguin 07 Feb 2018
In reply to myrddinmuse:

Tigers Don't Cry (HVS 5b) at  Shorn Cliff is good, as above you can do it without jamming but it is the best way!

> Even in this limestone hellscape of ours

Hey... be nice. I quite like it!

 GridNorth 07 Feb 2018
In reply to myrddinmuse:

King Kong at Wintours? Jamming/Laybacking.

 

Al

 Anoetic 07 Feb 2018
In reply to myrddinmuse:do the cragmeister at tirpentwys on gear....

 

In reply to myrddinmuse:

Punk rock Porth Completely Punked E1 5b,Deri near bargoed  Menage a Chien E2 5b, Expansionist E3 5b llanbradach, Crack Basher Port talbot has some jambs/ fingerlocks, Stone Wings E5 6a witches, Clart Mountain Project 7b Crymlyn, Fistynuts 7b X1 . I think there's a few gnarly jobbies at Dinas too also jambs handy on a few at Ogmore. 

In reply to myrddinmuse:   Bulging Flies (E2) at Wintours. Laps on that would be pretty good training!

 

Post edited at 21:59
 Rick Sewards 08 Feb 2018
In reply to richsmithinbristol:

>   Bulging Flies (E2) at Wintours. Laps on that would be pretty good training!

Agree with this one - possibly the best hand-jamming crack in the area, and unusually one which you pretty much have to jam - shame the crack isn't longer!  The first pitch of King Kong is good too, and The Split (VS) is a good entry-level offwidth.  That's about it for Wintour's - apart from one very obscure offering on North Wall - Banana Crunch (bit of a gift at E2 5b if you can jam) - try it!

Wynd Cliff has a few good cracks - Questor, Fibre (both VS) and Trial (HVS), plus Canine Crack (E1) at the Quarry

Shorn Cliff has Tiger's Don't Cry (good jamming at the top) and Fallacy (HVS and underrated IMO) but that's about it.  I can't really add to James Slater's list of Yat cracks.  In the forest, The Horned One (E1) is a bit of a classic at Staple Edge, and just to its left Drake Passage (E2) is a short but hard and very pure jamming crack with very little for your feet - can't see how you'd do it any other way.   There's bits of jamming on Arthur Pod (HVS) and Butch and Sundance (E1) on the same crag.

For a heatwave - try Passage of Time (E1) at Llangatock - the first 3/4 of which are an excellent fingers-to-hands crack - the top is a bit grim though...

Final obscure recommendation is Megalopolis at Ogmore - vaguely reminiscent of The Mincer, but much bigger - get on it!

Cheers

Rick

In reply to myrddinmuse:

Surely there are quite a few hard cracks on the Gower? e.g Kaiser and Power Trap?

 Rick Sewards 08 Feb 2018
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

Forgot about Gower! Haven't done those two but Seth, Chantilly Lace, Cyntaff and Cima all have some good jamming. Further afield, the best and purest crack climb I've done in South Wales is The Rip at Lydstep Head in Pembroke

Rick

 ericinbristol 08 Feb 2018
In reply to richsmithinbristol:

What a beast that route is!

In reply to ericinbristol:

> What a beast that route is!

Yeah, nearly made me throw up!

 Dave Cundy 09 Feb 2018
In reply to richsmithinbristol:

I found that desperate and i was leading E1/E2 at the time.  Even my mate Arwel, who is a bit taller and climbs E2 more easily, had a right struggle before topping out.

OP myrddinmuse 21 Feb 2018
In reply to all:

Finally got round to putting all of these in a ticklist.. Tried to find as many as I could on UKC, it was fun to look at all of the crags I've been to and the routes you can easily overlook. @Rick, can you tell me any more about how to find Passage of Time?

Let me know if any of you guys have thought of any additions/have any clue on how they should be categorized? 

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=2382

One obvious missing link is also Cilfrew Edge.. I'll get round to asking Ollie B about that when I return his tupperware.

Cheers guys, my hype for cracks has grown exponentially going through these!

OP myrddinmuse 21 Feb 2018

Ps. Anybody know if The Clart Mountain Project has been done on gear in the past?

Post edited at 17:45
 chris wyatt 22 Feb 2018
In reply to myrddinmuse:

Hey Myrddin. Just thought of Assasin on juniper wall - best hvs on gower and basically a crack.

 


New Topic
This topic has been archived, and won't accept reply postings.
Loading Notifications...